Designer Aamna Aqeel’s latest shoot titled “Be My Slave” falls squarely
into this category. Obviously designed to shock, it shows a model being
pandered to by a dark-skinned child slave. The images are repulsive with
racist and colonialist overtones. The fact that the slave in the
advertisements is a child, makes the images that much more inexcusable.
Aqeel
has barely been designing for two years. She won some critical acclaim
at the fifth edition of Fashion Pakistan Week held recently in Karachi,
but she remains very much an emerging designer with a lot to prove. It
seems that she’s decided, by hook or by crook, it’s time to get noticed.
...
When
contacted, Aqeel vehemently denied any racist angle to the shoot at
all. According to her, the choice of a dark-skinned Baloch child was
purely incidental. “He works in a garage and wanted some work,” she
said. Obviously the parents of usual child models wouldn’t have agreed
to the shoot. The pampered little cuties who advertise soap, toothpaste
and biscuits on TV may not have looked right for the part but even if
they had, no one would have let their child play such a degrading role. Aqeel’s
argument is that she wanted to spark a debate on child labour. She says
she is involved with a children’s charity and wanted to highlight how
‘society madams’ employ child labour in their homes. She is educating
and supporting the child used in the shoot — it seems the least she can
do after exploiting him in this fashion.
Raised in London and now based in Paris, she has recently arrived in New York to shoot the Marc Jacobs fall ad campaign—a dream job, she admits cheerfully, that kept her at work “in Central Park until 2:00 a.m.” the night before last. Perhaps you recall the model who wore only a pair of pin-striped shorts, opera-length gloves, and black patent heels in Jacobs’s fall 2013 show? That was McMenamy, covering her chest with her right arm in what was only her third runway appearance, ever. “First I couldn’t really believe that they were asking me to go topless, and then they were, like, ‘We’re being serious,’ and so I was, like, ‘All right. Fine,’ ” she explains with a laugh. “Marc and I talked a lot about my hand positioning. I wanted to do this.” She presses both her palms to her T-shirt. “But he said it’d be much classier with one hand. Like, ‘Oh, Mr. Produuuucer.’ I had to walk three times. When I came backstage after the first, I said, ‘Marc, was it all right?’ and he said, ‘Amazing.’ So I thought, okay, I can do it again.”
Ottavio Missoni, who founded the iconic Missoni fashion brand with his wife Rosita, died this morning at his home in Sumirago. He was 92.
On May 1, Missoni, known by his nickname Tai, was hospitalized for a cardiac impairment but was released later that evening. Details of the funeral service were not available at press time.
Missoni was born in 1921 in Ragusa on the Dalmatian coast to Teresa De Vidovich, countess of Capocesto and Ragosniza, and Vittorio Missoni, a sea captain. By 1942 he was already a track star, but suffered in World War II, fighting at El Alamein and being held as a British prisoner of war in Egypt for four years.
Running was a natural gift and his nickname was “son of Apollus.” Missoni made the Italian national team when he was 16, and at the time of his death still held the national 400-meter record for a 16-year-old. Wool and sports were a recurring theme in his life, while schooling was not a priority. He celebrated his 90th birthday in 2011 with “a good glass of wine” and an autobiography “Una vita sul filo di lana.” The title, which in English means “A life on the wool thread,” is a pun on the duality of Missoni’s successes, athletically and in fashion, as a thread was held across the finish line of a race before the arrival of photo finishes.
GIGGLING Cara Delevingne drops a packet of mysterious white powder
outside her home — and worried friends yesterday said they fear her
partying could damage her health.
The small sachet tumbled out of the 20-year-old supermodel’s handbag and on to the floor as she searched for her keys.
Cara swiftly covered the packet with her foot, then her handbag before snatching it up.
Cara
was pictured dropping the packet of powder, which looked like it could
be cocaine, as she returned to her home in Belgravia, central London, on
Wednesday afternoon following a meeting with designers.
Photographers
who saw Cara arrive with a pal said she seemed “energetic” as she
struggled to find her house keys. One said: “She was trying to get
inside her house. She said, ‘I’ve lost my keys guys, I’ve lost my keys’.
“She
was really giggly. She found it hilarious but her friend was really
edgy about it. Suddenly Cara dropped something and bent over to pick it
up.
“Very discreetly, she just put her foot on it and then rolled
her handbag across so it looked like she was just kind of bending over.
“The
friend kept saying, ‘Can you stop taking pictures?’ The friend
definitely realised they were in trouble once that little packet had
dropped on the ground.”
Aiglemont, France, 26 April 2013 — His Highness the Aga Khan today
announced the engagement of his eldest son, Prince Rahim Aga Khan [41], to
Ms. Kendra Spears of Seattle, Washington, the United States.
The
Aga Khan, who is the Spiritual Leader or Imam of the global community of
the Shia Ismaili Muslims, said he was delighted to announce the
engagement.
Prince Rahim Aga Khan holds a BA from Brown
University and an executive management degree from the Navarra Business
School in Barcelona, Spain. He is involved in the poverty reduction
efforts, notably micro-credit activities, of the Aga Khan Development
Network – one of the largest private systems of agencies fostering
social, cultural and economic development in Asia, Africa and the Middle
East.
Ms. Spears holds a BA in sociology from the University of
Washington in her native Seattle. She has a strong interest in arts and
architecture. Ms. Spears has had a highly successful career as a model,
working with many of the most prestigious fashion houses.
The couple will be married in a Muslim ceremony. The date of the marriage has not been set yet.
Forbes describes the Aga Khan as one of the world's ten richest royals
with an estimated net worth of $800 million USD (2010). Additionally he
is unique among the richest royals as he does not preside over a
geographic territory. He owns hundreds of racehorses, valuable stud
farms, an exclusive yacht club on Sardinia, a private island in the
Bahamas, two Bombardier jets, a 12-seat helicopter, a £100 million high
speed yacht named after his prize racehorse, and several estates around
the world, including an estate called Aiglemont in the town of Gouvieux,
France – just north of Paris. His philanthropic institutions, funded by
his followers, spend more than $600 million per year – primarily in
Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2007, after an interview with the
Aga Khan, G. Pascal Zachary, of the The New York Times, wrote, "Part of
the Aga Khan's personal wealth [used by him and his family], which his
advisers say exceeds $1 billion [USD], comes from a dizzyingly complex
system of tithes that some of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims pay
him each year [one of which is called dasond, which is at least 12.5%
of each Nizari Ismaili's gross annual income] – an amount that he will
not disclose but which may reach hundreds of millions of dollars
annually."
Among the goals the Aga Khan has asserted he works
toward are the elimination of global poverty; the promotion and
implementation of secular pluralism; the advancement of the status of
women; and the honoring of Islamic art and architecture.
An article on Page 50 this weekend about System, a new magazine about the fashion industry, includes outdated information about its plans. After the article had gone to press, a representative from System announced that the stylist Marie-Amélie Sauvé, who worked on the first issue, will not be a member of System’s editorial board as previously announced. And a picture portfolio by Neville Wakefield planned for the first issue will be published in a later issue.
So you started off as this rookie photographer with close to zero experience, how did your style come into place? I
was not interested at all with anything that had to do with technique. I
didn’t even know what the camera in my hand was called most times
because we would rent them. I was just so interested in the girls.
Fascinated. In love, in a way. In a stupid way. I still am. But it’s
kind of like in the way that only someone who doesn’t meet enough girls
is fascinated by girls, you know? [Laughs.] I’ll always remember just
having Linda Evangelista in front of me. And looking through the lens,
seeing her face there, and pulling it into focus. And I remember asking,
“Could you open your mouth?” because I thought that it would make it
more beautiful. I took the picture and it was like such an erotic, sexy.
You know, it’s like with the camera between the man and a woman, you
could get away with murder. I’m not, like, gregarious around women.
This is truly the lowest of low: model scouts in Stockholm have
reportedly taken to lurking outside the country’s largest eating
disorder clinic in search of fresh talent to bring back to their
agencies. The Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders brought the practice
to light in the city’s local Metro newspaper, where they lobbed
complaints about scouts handing off business cards to patients as young
as 14.
...
The center recalled one incident where a
patient in a wheelchair was approached by a top agent, and another
involving a 14-year-old girl whose mother and care coordinator had to
explain to the defensive recruiter that she was too ill to model.
Renzo Rosso has found the person to transform the Diesel brand he
founded 35 years ago for a new generation — Nicola Formichetti.
“I
finally met somebody as crazy as I am,” Rosso proclaimed in a Skype
interview after returning from a trip to Nepal. “I have replaced myself
and can go on vacation.”
More seriously, Rosso, 57, noted that
Formichetti, 35, will be responsible for “a total view of the Diesel
brand — product, communications, marketing and interior design. I want
him to do bigger things, different things. This is the right man to take
the next step for a young company and a brand for people who are young
of mind.”
Today, Nicola Formichetti was revealed as the first-ever Artistic Director of Diesel. A few weeks earlier, BoF’s Imran Amed conducted his latest CEO Talk with the man who started it all, Italian fashion entrepreneur Renzo Rosso.
I think [what] we are missing is an artistic director to bring the crazy, funny ideas like we did before. Finding someone who can understand Diesel is very difficult. Diesel is complex, complicated and unique. Our customers are expecting something very different. They don’t want to see traditional things.
I’ve followed Nicola Formichetti around the world. He has an incredible following, and made such a difference at Mugler from the very first show. I was incredibly impressed with the pop-up store he did in New York. I spent almost three hours inside that store! The way he arranged the clothes and the energy he brought to the space, it was great.
Diesel has never had a single creative director before, but now as I spend more time managing the group, I need to put the right people in the right job. And Nicola is the right man for this job.
Little wonder, therefore, that other local agencies are not terribly
impressed with the news that the cover of Australia's most prestigious
fashion title is off limits to anyone other than the world's biggest
model agency for almost half of 2013.
...
Noted another,
"We've got a big international company coming into town and all of these
amazing family businesses that have worked from grass roots and we all
feel really threatened. With IMG Models, there's no history there. It's just a very different place. It's pure business. IMG
[Models] are very successful worldwide because they have systems in
place and they are big and they are corporate and they are powerful.
Obviously it was a commercial decision but it takes out the fair playing
field. It's like an ad campaign for IMG. It also means that perhaps an
Australian model misses out being on the cover. Every young girl wants
to be on the cover of Vogue".
...
Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Edwina McCann:
"Miranda Kerr is a queen bee whose social media following dwarfs most. A brand in her own right, she is managed by IMG, the talent agency that also manages the careers of Venus Williams and Justin Timberlake and runs Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, London and Australia. Clearly IMG is a force to be reckoned with and now that its model agency doors have opened in Australia, we can expect many more of our young Mirandas to become international superbrands in the future".
Biannual fashion tome Love magazine has appointed stylist and longtime contributor Panos Yiapanis as fashion director-at-large, reporting to editor-in-chief Katie Grand. Over the last decade, independent stylist Yiapanis’ aesthetic, darkly romantic with nods to youth and counter culture, has been sought out by publications including i-D magazine, Vogue Italia, and W magazine, as well as fashion brands like Givenchy and Rick Owens.
Thierry Mugler is parting ways with Nicola Formichetti, the
super-stylist called in two years ago to rev up its inchoate fashion
business, WWD has learned.
...
Joel Palix, president of
Clarins Fragrance Group and director general of Mugler, is expected to
soon reveal a new strategic plan for Mugler “that builds on its highly
successful legacy in fragrance and its new momentum in fashion.”
“Nicola
has accomplished our original mission of bringing his energy to the
brand,” Palix said in a statement. “With his talent for communication
and understanding modern imagery and design, Nicola has been
instrumental in attracting a new audience which is undeniably crucial
for the future strategy of the house. He will be a historical part of
the Mugler legacy and known as the force that catapulted us forward.”
Sara was over Ole Henriksen SPA, and here told the clinician that should take care of our beauty editor that Helena Christensen soon launch its own line of organic body products and scented candles.
Designer Aamna Aqeel’s latest shoot titled “Be My Slave” falls squarely into this category. Obviously designed to shock, it shows a model being pandered to by a dark-skinned child slave. The images are repulsive with racist and colonialist overtones. The fact that the slave in the advertisements is a child, makes the images that much more inexcusable.
